Staying calm while calming the baby

Hey all,
Didn’t think I was going to get to this blog entry tonight… it is getting late and our newborn daughter has had some difficulty getting settled and to sleep tonight. So I have spent the past two hours on and off using our calming techniques.
In a previous post I mentioned “The Happiest Baby on the Block” and the calming techniques used on the DVD of the same name. One of the techniques, combined with swaddling, is “Shushing” or creating “white noise” by making a gentle shushing sound. The theory behind this is that it creates a noise similar to what the baby is used to hearing from being in the womb, so it has a soothing effect.
So tonight I spent a lot of time holding her up to my chest and walking and rocking and gently shushing. I felt all shushed out at one point to say the least, and felt like I had shushed more than the ocean on a very breezy day.
That is when I had my “aha” moment! I was so focused on making my daughter calm and making shushing sounds for her, that I was completely wearing myself out and making myself more stressed in the process. She could also probably sense that I was stressed, so it was more difficult for her to relax.
So I thought, why not make the calming techniques work for me, rather than against me? I shifted the focus of the calming to myself (sorry if that sounds selfish). While rocking and shushing my daughter, I closed my eyes and imagined that I was in a hammock by the ocean and the shushing sound was the ocean breeze. This immediately calmed me and kept me calm and relaxed, and at the same time it kept my daughter calm and relaxed. As I became more relaxed, she could also sense that I was more relaxed, which further relaxed her. I had a virtuous cycle going, rather than a vicious one!
I really feel good about this discovery, so had to share it with you all right away! Try it out, it definitely helps!
Join the jam and share your stories on how you stay calm while you calm your baby, and if you find that it helps!

4 Comments »

Great take on the technique. Although this take or variation is not in the original book or DVD of “Happiest Baby on the Block,” it is priceless advice for any parent. Stay clam and the kids will follow. Wonderful advice, Vincent.